Having heard good things about the chain, we decided to come here instead of Hapa Izakaya on a cold Friday lunch since we were craving a bowl of hot ramen.
We got the last table just after 12, and as mentioned there is no waiting area and no reservations are accepted so make sure you go slightly off-peak unless you want to wait. The food came out fairly quickly, I ordered the Old Skool and gf got the Feb special Tokyo Tonkotsu. I also asked for the fresh garlic topping which is offered free here. They provide a container of peeled garlic and provide a garlic press for you to season to your own preferences.
The Tokyo Tonkotsu is a pork based broth and it is definitely richer and thicker than my chicken based broth. Both bowls were topped with a perfectly cooked egg. However, the egg was cold because the broth in both bowls weren't hot enough. The pork chashu were nice and tender without being overly fatty. Both of these bowls came with the thin noodles which are reminiscent of al-dente Italian pasta which was great. Wanting to try the thick noodles, I ordered the Kaedama (extra noodles). They warned me that since my broth was flavored for the thin noodles the taste might be too light, so I'm guessing the broths with the thick noodles are more concentrated. The noodles came hot on a plate and slid into the remainder of my broth. They were much thicker and firmer than typical ramen noodles with good bounce.
Overall the noodles themselves were great. The gf preferred the thick noodles and I preferred the thin, but both are above average in my opinion. However, they were let down by the tepid broth temperature which also dragged down the perfectly cooked egg. The service was OK, however it took a while to get our bill. I might come back eventually to try the Cha Cha Cha ramen that has earned lots of good reviews, but as of now I prefer Hapa Izakaya as my downtown ramen lunch spot. It looks like takeout is available if you don't want to wait in line since I saw some people swing by to pick up food in styrofoam containers.